Citizenship and Immigration committee  My position here in Alberta is, as I've indicated, that the Alberta government was too late in bringing in these temporary foreign worker problem-solvers. And the two ladies are doing an excellent job; maybe we need about three in each city, or more. But they are dealing with the

Citizenship and Immigration committee  I do want to say something about the provincial nominee programs in the provinces that have them, and I'm not too sure which ones do. Here in Alberta, the provincial government has doubled the number of nominees they're going to process, but again, even that takes time, because i

Citizenship and Immigration committee  I'm aware that it's working very effectively both in Alberta and in Saskatchewan, where you come from.

Citizenship and Immigration committee  Let me just add to Mr. Komarnicki's comment that I think part of the problem is that employers then resort to what our friend the lawyer has indicated. It takes them so long to get an LMO that they go ahead and hire the people illegally and pay them cash, and there's no record. T

Citizenship and Immigration committee  You're talking to an Albertan who doesn't need funding—

Citizenship and Immigration committee  —but I do say that it has to be more than encouragement. It has to be an agreement, a working agreement.

Citizenship and Immigration committee  Madam Chow, I'm a little bit of a protectionist, being a former politician, like Jim. I think, and I've said this publicly, the federal government's temporary foreign worker program was a good idea, but they lacked collaboration with the provinces. The discussion here was about

Citizenship and Immigration committee  Yes, there are provincial responsibilities that have not...and I have argued with my former colleagues in Alberta for many years to get some of this done. I have indicated to you that I complimented the former minister of immigration, Iris Evans, when she appointed these two work

Citizenship and Immigration committee  I want to add to my two colleagues here that I've been very unhappy with the recruiters we have. That is an area that the federal government has to take a good look at; it's not a provincial responsibility. Some of them who are immigration consultants—and they take that tag them

Citizenship and Immigration committee  There's another reason, from what we've learned. They can travel by bus to Portugal, or they can travel to Russia, and instead of having to come with a big plane fare to Canada, they choose that route. We've had some attempts made to try to help these temporary foreign workers.

Citizenship and Immigration committee  Thank you, Mr. Chairman. At the outset I want to share with you that Jim Gurnett and I used to be both in the legislature together. We were of different political stripes, but we worked very collaboratively together, and I welcome Jim's comments, particularly because the Mennoni